1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to devices used to defeat or render safe unexploded ordnance or buried land mines, more specifically to kinetic energy penetrating devices that defeat such mines, and most specifically to kinetic energy penetrating devices that contain materials that neutralize the explosive material within such mines.
2. Description of the Related Art
Over the past several years, several systems have been developed that employ penetrating devices to defeat unexploded ordnance and/or buried land mines. Particularly pertinent to the invention are darts or projectiles designed to penetrate through dirt, sand, and/or water as well as the casing of unexploded ordnance or buried land mines in order to deliver a payload designed to neutralize the explosive material within said mines. In operation, the devices are designed to penetrate through the casing of a mine and use kinetic energy to xe2x80x9cbreak-upxe2x80x9d or fracture the explosive material within a mine, allowing a neutralizing agent to contact the fractured explosive material, thereby neutralizing it. The neutralizing agent is normally some type of material that will burn the explosive material in the mine but not detonate it, for example, the hot decomposition products of a propellant, or chemically react with the explosive in the mine in order to complete its neutralization.
Examples of such systems and devices include U.S. Pat. No. 6,401,591 that discloses a projectile that carries a surface contact chemical capable of neutralizing explosives wherein the nose assembly penetrates the casing of a mine and fractures the explosive material, while separating from remainder of the projectile, allowing the surface contact chemical to react with the fractured explosive within the mine. U.S. Pat. No. 6,540,175 discloses a projectile having a cavitating nose and carrying a high temperature incendiary fill to burn explosive material with a mine.
However, the neutralizing agents used in the above devices only react with the exposed surface area of the explosive material within a mine. Therefore, in order to completely consume or defeat all of the explosive material within a mine, the explosive material must be extensively fractured to greatly increase the surface area that reacts with the neutralizing agent. It has been determined through testing that often, that kinetic energy penetration alone does not sufficiently fracture the explosive material within a mine to allow the explosive material to be fully consumed by the neutralizing agent.
Therefore, it is desired to develop a method to increase the level of fracture of explosive material within a mine so that a delivered neutralizing agent may fully consume said explosive material, completely defeating the mine without initiating a detonation in said explosive material.
The invention proposed herein comprises a kinetic energy penetrating projectile to defeat buried mines containing a small amount of a high explosive material capable of detonation in order to extensively fracture the explosive material within the mine so that a neutralizing agent can fully defeat the mine without detonating it.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a projectile to defeat mines without detonating the mines.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a projectile that significantly fractures the explosive material within a mine so that it can be fully neutralized.
This invention meets these and other objectives related to defeating buried mines by providing a projectile containing either a neutralizing agent or a material that generates a neutralizing agent on one end and a small amount of a high explosive capable of detonation on the opposite end. A detonator is placed proximate to the high explosive material with a backstop being placed proximate to the detonator. In operation, the projectile penetrates the casing of the mine and penetrates into the explosive material within the mine, beginning to fracture the explosive material. Initiation of the high explosive material is delayed until deceleration of the projectile causes the high explosive material to push into the detonator, which in turn, pushes against the backstop and activates the detonator. The detonator initiates a detonation in the high explosive material, causing extensive fracture/damage of the explosive material within the mine. This allows the neutralizing agent to completely consume the explosive material within the mine, thus defeating the mine without detonating it.